Tomatoes

[Pussygalore]

well I own up I do give my torts the odd tomatoe as a treat they may not contain any value but can give extra moisture when its hot and dry and I don,t think they do any harm as a treat, but my torts have access to weeds and grazing all day every day and often they don,t want the treats anyway.

[Pussygalore]

plus to be extra naughty they have the odd peice of cucumber and a nice juicy strawberry so go ahead and string me up probably no more sugar content than lovely big flower heads full of nectar.

[leggy]

Do you Strawderrys make a hell of a mess I give mine cucumber most of the time coverd in vits

[helen1]

Me too, as a treat, I often wonder what my life would be without chocolate!! I dont drink alcohol so choc is my poison. If thy graze and are given weeds a little treat on hot days will do no harm. Strawberries are tres messy and you can see it around their mouths and smell it for days afterwards.

[leggy]

My redfoots wont touch strawberrys Very strang i love them. I bout a tub of organic ones for my reds and kids and my sister eat the lot

[Beverley]

I must admit I did give my two a little piece of cucumber and a little strawberry I had growing in the garden one day but they would'nt touch it, I guess they are just too well trained now I thought if I needed to worm them putting it on the cucumber may make them take it, but no go. I think a little thin slice of cucumber on a rare occasion should do no harm.
Beverley

[Pussygalore]

well there you are its only takes one person to own up to being guilty and everyone comes out of the closet, obviously those sort of things shouldn,t be the sole diet as apart from water they have no value and if given as the food source then will be eaten over preference to the weeds etc but if like mine they have outside access then by the time mine do get a treat usually in the afternoons they.ll have eaten the weeds etc the rest of the time so aren,t hungry and they usually only have a nibble and leave the rest although tootsie loves something juicy and I had to wean sid off these sorts of foods as thats all he,d had so I have to make sure he,s been eating other things, they only get something extra a couple of times a week and have to forage for themselves the rest. I gave tootsie a really ripe fig last year of the tree in the park and she loved it but I,m thinking that in her native country she may come accross the odd fallen fig or date when they are on the trees over there, now that was messy and I had to bath her after everything was sticking to her and she looked like a hedgehog with leaves stickes etc stuck on her front legs and head, a fig could be a good thing to hide a wormer in, this one was all squiggy.

[helen1]

I was speaking to someone a year back who studied torts in there own habitat/country and when weeds are scarce and fruit is dropping it is the only source of food/fluids they have so they naturally eat it.

[Pussygalore]

thats what I meant but you have to bear in mind that its only at certain times of the year when they,d find fallen fruit not all the year round so their diet balances itself , a bit like if they have any rain there will be a burst of plant growth but it won,t last long and then its back to the old dried weeds, the same as flowers they wouldn,t be around all the time and torts would only be able to reach the fallen ones or maybe those on lower branches so again they would be a rare treat, whenever we.ve been to the south of france or spain its like a desert with very little green just old brown dried up weeds, but there were plenty of wild date trees which I,m assuming must drop fruit I,d imagine that these rare treats might be vital to any animal trying to survive in such arrid conditions but because we have access to greenery all year round our animals don,t undergo these extremes so extras must be treats as they get more than they,d ever find the rest of the time.

That is why torts hang on to their urine so they don't have to drink. If they were to go around eating tomatoes their gut flora would gallop. Never saw any tomatoes or fruit where we were tort watching